Time & Place: Why I loved my concrete bunker

When writer Alan de Botton was packed off to boarding school at eight, he yearned for the safety of his bomb-proof Swiss flat

My childhood apartment in Zurich is a classic example of Swiss 1960s modern design. It was built out of concrete with a simple flat roof and large windows. High quality, but in no way luxurious or ostentatious. It’s in a block that ascends a hill and each flat has a little balcony. In Britain, the word “concrete” sets off alarm bells, but the Swiss were pioneers of the successful use of concrete.

I was born in 1969 and my Swiss parents had moved into the apartment about three years before. My father worked for a Swiss bank and my mother looked after my sister, Miel, and I. We rented; it would have been rare to buy property as it’s so expensive.

My parents were attracted to the idea of being urban and wanted to live near the centre. There was a garden with three trees that my sister and I